Most tennis stars over the age of 30 are used to fielding questions regarding their retirement plans. That is, if they are still playing.
But for Serena Williams, 33, the questions relate to winning a calendar grand slam, a feat achieved by only three women: Maureen Connolly Brinker (1953), Margaret Court (1970) and Steffi Graf (1988).
Brinker retired at the age of 20, Court played until she was 35 and Graf gave up the game a couple of months after her 30th birthday. Williams, however, is looking better than ever.
The American has won 27 of her 66 singles titles since celebrating her 30th birthday in 2011, a haul that includes six of her 19 grand slams, an Olympic gold medal and 10 Premier finals.
RELATED
– Serena Williams ‘feels really good’ after clinching Miami title to join elite ‘eight’ club
– In 2015, Novak Djokovic, Andy Murray and Roger Federer are quashing tennis’s Big Four mutiny
In the past 42 months, she has only lost two finals (both to Victoria Azarenka), and only six of her other 27 finals have gone to a third set.
In those 27 matches, she has won nine sets 6-0 and another 11 sets have finished 6-1 in her favour.
Those stats establish Williams’ dominance as the No 1 women’s player of recent times, but can she really win a calendar grand slam?
The American has never won the first two majors in the same year, and she has failed to dominate the clay of Roland Garros as she has other surfaces.
Williams is 47-11 in 13 appearances at the French Open and could go no further than the second round in 2014. In 2012, she lost in the opening round, which is her worst performance at any major.
This time around, Williams also seems to be struggling with a knee injury, which could make her task tougher on clay, which can be more physically demanding than the other surfaces.
Still, for Williams, as the famous advertising slogan goes, impossible is nothing.
arizvi@thenational.ae
FOLLOW US ON TWITTER @NatSportUAE
